Handicapped Tell Of Increased Need For Transportation

May 19, 1985|by RON DEVLIN , Sunday Call-Chronicle

Dottie Anderson gets to work on time three days a week. The other two, she's often late.

Anderson, a 38-year-old Allentown woman handicapped from birth, told a panel of local transportation experts and advocates for the handicapped yesterday that the reason she doesn't make it to her job at First National Bank on time is because of inadequate transportation service to the handicapped in Lehigh Valley.

Like hundreds of other handicapped persons, Anderson depends on a van operated by the Valley Association for Specialized Transportation (VAST) for transportation to and from work.

She starts work at 8 a.m., but she said VAST is unable to pick her up until 8:30 or 9 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Fortunately, an understanding supervisor allows her to make up the time. But she said that's not the point.

"If I can be picked up at 8 a.m. three days a week, why not the other two?" she asked the panel in the gymnasium of Allentown's Dieruff High School. "That's not too much to ask."

Anderson, a petite woman who is confined to a wheelchair, was one of about 30 handicapped persons who expressed complaints in person or writing at a "Public Forum on Transportation," sponsored by Operation Overcome of the Lehigh Valley.

The panel included representatives of VAST and LANTA, the public transportation authority mandated by federal law to provide equal access or alternative transportation facilities for the handicapped. LANTA contracts with VAST to provide the van service to handicapped persons living and traveling within its service area. It operates from 6:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

The testimony of person after person, many of whom wheeled themselves to the microphone, reflected the changing world of the handicapped, many of whom are increasingly independent. Because of an emphasis on de- institutionalization, many handicapped persons now live on their own and hold full or part-time jobs.

But with that independence comes a dependence on public transportation for commuting to work, shopping or recreation.

As it is now structured, the VAST program gives priority to medical needs. The persons who testified yesterday talked of the need for expanded service.

"The needs of disabled persons have increased dramatically since VAST started," said John Parfitt, a 38-year-old civil engineer who was left almost totally disabled by a tumor on his spinal cord.

Parfitt, a quadriplegic who lives at the Good Shepherd Home, is still working his way back to his job designing bridges. But the need for expanded service was apparent in a statement Parfitt read into the record for a disabled friend, Charles E. Housel Jr. of Allentown.

Housel, a Muhlenberg College graduate with a degree in history, is looking for employment but said, "My transportation crisis is holding me back."

Housel said if he gets a job, VAST requires 4-6 weeks to fit him into its schedule. He fears he would lose the job by not being able to start immediately. And since he doesn't know where the job might be, he can't sign up in advance.

"It's truly an impossible bind," he wrote.

Jeanne Billman, a handicapped Allentown woman, complained about being unable to hold several jobs over the last four years because of inadequate transportation.

"It seemed no matter what my hours were, VAST could not provide adequate, dependable transportation five days in a row," Billman wrote in a statement read by Corinne Nechin, who is also handicapped.

Billman wrote that once at work she would be often preoccupied with worrying about what time, or if at all, VAST would pick her up at the end of the day.

"That's the kind of extra stress you deal with every day when you have a disability and can't drive," she wrote. "It interferes with your opportunity to live an equal and independent life."

Alexis S. Gurinko of Allentown said in a written statement that she is becoming more dependent upon public transportation as her mother ages and finds it more difficult to lift her in an out of the family car. There are also problems lifting the heavy motorized wheelchair she depends upon in and out of the car's trunk.

"I cannot go places and join activities that I would like to," she said in a statement read by Cynthia Sherly, director of Access Allentown, a guide to handicapped persons.

"This leaves me confined at home, sitting in a world of utter frustration, which often leaves me very depressed," the handicapped woman wrote.

Robert Bauer, VAST director, said the limitations on its service are determined by the contract with LANTA. He explained that while it has 28 vans, VAST services several other clients, including the Northampton and Lehigh County agencies on aging and United Cerebral Palsy of Lehigh Valley.

Bauer said a recent survey of 1,500 VAST users turned up only 32 persons who were dissatisfied with the service.